I finally enrolled myself at a gym near workplace! It finally happened after putting it off for FAR too long. I'm also very glad that I'm not enrolled in one of those posers/wannabes gym like the likes of FF, which I hated wholeheartedly. The last time I was in a gym, it was the BLOODY FF!! The ones in D'sara Heights & PJ (near Asia Jaya). Yes, after contemplating for so long (by then I've been out of gym or anything close to physical exercise for about a year) I decided to take up the company's corporate rate offer at FF, which initially I thought was a good deal and realised I was totally ripped off after seeing their rack rates advertised on some flyers! Fuggers gave me a "very attractive corporate rate of RM165 ONLY" which I ended up paying for a good 10 months and only visited the fac, like, 5 times!
I also hate all those places that offers "0% interest scheme" which requires you to commit to autodebit through credit card, it makes it so difficult to cancel membership as well. So this time around, I took all these little bits into consideration when I went gym hunting. Lucky me I found this one near my workplace which is run by a friend of hubz' godmother (not that it made any diff in $$) but at least I know I won't be going in to watch a showdown between Biatch 1 and Biatch 2 or Queen 1 and Queen 2, if you know what I mean! This is a serious gym. For serious people, like me! Hahahaha
Going to a new gym always gives me a strange feeling, a bit scary at the same time exciting, kinda like going to a new school! I've been to a few gyms around town since 1999, the first ever was our "Free" gym at Duta Vista! Oh, I LOVED that place. One of our friends parents had this timeshare vacation membership with a particular group that includes free use of gym at Duta Vista. 3 of us will drive from downtown KL after work to the gym at least 2-3 times weekly. I must give props to the PT there at the time, this old buff dude, whom, according to my friends, is half German (or something like that) and half Punjabi! Yea, dig that! First time we went in, he took our body weights/heights etc., and asked me what's my concern was, since I was so young (born '75, do the maths!) and looked fit (externally). I told him I don't like how my butt looked since I have completely stopped running after I started to work. He said OK, just give him 3 months and I MUST be willing to listen to him, sounded good to me. But you know what, before the 3 months were up, I was ALREADY happy with how my butt looked! I know there were times I cussed and swore at him (under my breath of course) for asking me to do all those workouts that made me crawl home afterwards, but I was so glad I did them when I saw the results! I wonder whatever happened to him?! I think we lasted almost a year there, although some days especially when he's not around we won't do any weights according to our plans, we will instead play squash, hit the shower and hit a chinese restaurant for fried rice! Talk about being healthy! So that was gym 1.
Gym 2 was Gold's at Yow Chuan Plaza. This was sometimes in 2001 which lasted slightly over a year or perhaps a bit more, can't recall. This was OK. A bit commercial. Some wannabes. PTs were more interested in wooing the opposite or same sex for personal reasons than the rightful reasons. But if you know what you are doing and mind your own biz, no one bothers you and you will get a good workout, which to me, is more important. This is the first gym I went to that had tv screens everywhere playing MTV music videos, an extensive range of group classes (which I don't enjoy at all) and best of all, lends you t-shirt, shorts, socks and trainers (well, just a basic fung keong looking shoes) for you to work out in so that you CAN NOT make excuse to not show up to gym! How cool is that??? Although I do not know of anyone who would wear any of them! Hahaaha
Gym 3 was the BEST! It's one of those small scale ones (like the one I just enrolled in), located in PJ next to Crystal Crown hotel. I think they are still in business. I went to this gym with only 1 intention. I needed equipment and a place to do my BFL program, and no matter what happens I am going to complete my 3 months. Actually I stayed on here for about 5 months coz the first two months I did not do much as I was trying to get the momentum going. I hated one of the instructor here who is the sis-in law of the owner cum PT of the joint, I doubt the SiL is a qualified trainer, I'm sure she got the job because she is the SiL, nothing else. This woman conducts a few cardio classes, one of which I participated in a couple of times and then I gave up because everytime I see her jumping up & down I felt nauseous. You would too if you stand directly behind her and you can see how the cellulite molecules on her thighs dances to the music that plays in the background! Talk about motivation! She was also the same person who told me that I was unfit to do the BFL program, AFTER I explained to her what it was ALL about. I mean, c'mon, she did not know who Bill Philips was, it was her first time hearing about BFL, before that she was trying so hard to sell her SiL as PT to me which I politely declined several times, then her last ammo was putting me down by saying I was unfit to do BFL. Yes, ain't she a major Biatch?! You think I was gonna let this person with superiority complex pull me down? MISTAKE. I lost 13.6 kg in 3 months on BFL! Huh! Then I quit from there and went to the gym at a friend's apt in town.
Yea, so there. My gym experiences since 1999. Now I'm looking forward to this new joint!!! 2009, I'm on track!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Can babies FEEL embarassment/shame?
You bet! I have been reading tonnes of material on babies and parenting ever since I found out I was preggie, that was ermm, 17 mths ago. Some material I have read says that babies start feelign embarassment in two stages, 1st between the age of 15-20 months and later when they are about 3 years old is when the shame aspect comes in. The fact is, no matter how much you have read there will always be something to be surprised about when you have a little person eagerly trying to take in everything around them and at the same time trying to express themselves! I realised my little almost 9 month-old CAN be embarassed, only a couple of weekends back.
It all started one Saturday evening, while I was baking in the kitchen and she decided to venture out from the kitchen into my sister's room. One look into the room, I knew what exactly attracted her to it, my sister's bag with half the guts spilled out. Within seconds she was seated next to the beg which was placed on the mattress that was on the floor. When she put one hand out to grab the bag, both my sister and I went, "Hey!". She retrieved her hand, slowly pushed the room door to block us out of her view and grabbed the bag once more. The best part is, babies always think just because they cannot see us, they think we can't see either. Which is SO cute. Reminds me of a gf and her son, who plays hide and seek by covering his eyes thinking no one can see him when he does that!
Anyways, what happened was the next day mum came to visit so all of us girls were hanging out in my sister's room with Nia in the middle. There was mum, my aunt who is Nia's nanny, my two sisters & I. I recounted the story from the day before how Nia tried to not show us what she was doing by pushing the door etc. From the time I started telling the story she was already getting upset at me, she kept staring at me and shouting, "Eii!", "Eii!", she actually does this quite alot especially when we are talking about her, so I just went on with my story. But this time, when I finished telling the story, everyone laughed, and this was when she jumped on me from where she was seated, buried her face in my neck and started crying. I had to carry her in my arms and comfort her before the crying subsided.
Later that night when I re-told what happened to hubz, we both realised that she was actually embarassed! Now I know. I reckon when they are able to feel different emotions, they should be able to feel embarassed or shy too, no? Whatever the professionals may say on the topic. I mean, we can deduce babies actions and reactins to a certain degree, unless I sit down with Nia every minute of her waking life, recording every single thing that she does, I will never be able to tell for sure whether whatever that is written about babies in different stages are accurate as far as my baby's concerned, isn't that so? Aren't all babies, just like adults, individuals?
Nia did start crawling when she was barely 5 months, well, no, I wouldn't call that crawling, it was more like a caterpillar's movement, where she uses her head to push her way through, and sometimes, she leaps using her whole body! When she got tired of this, she tried walking, she will slide down from the couch and start crusing by holding on to the couch! At this point she can't even sit up yet, so I had concerns for her wanting to walk so fast when obviously her back and legs aren't strong enough. But we encouraged it nevertheless, just that, we took extra measures like ensuring she's fed sitting up straight in her baby chair and whenever she wants to be sitting up, we'll prop her against piles of pillows so that she get the 'experience' of it. Then, by the time she turned 6 mths, her two lower front teeth erupted, as you can imagine, this was a major event in our lives, not only Nia's! She only became extremely active in crawling after her teeth erupted, I do not know if there is any connection between this two events, but it seems so to me. Now that she can be classified as F1 crawler, she still cruises whenever possible and most time she will stand up holding on to something, like TV, book shelf & table and has her little "no-hands" moments!
Back to my point, what I'm saying is that just because there's no recorded evidence by the pros does not mean what a baby experiences is unreal. I guess, as parents, we may read too much into something, as of course, we all WANT to believe or LIKE to believe that our offsprings are the smartest/cleverest/cutest of the lot. Unfortunately, that is NOT my intention, I do not wish to start comparing Nia with other kids, I don't want her to grow up thinking that she's better than certain people or she's worse than some. It may be important that she has some competitive streak in her but this she can learn that when she's older by playing sports. Nia is Nia. She has spunk and lots of personality (as what her daddy claims!), she does not give up and she does everything in her own time. As a parent, I know my responsibility is to nurture that sense of independence & curiosity and allow her to be a baby AND an explorer.
I, too, am learn something new everyday and everyday hubz and I talk about what she did, what we did etc just to keep a tab on the small mistakes we make sometimes without even noticing and go through all the stuff that we should never do as parents. I do realise that nowadays 70% of the conversation hubz & I have are either on Nia or on parenting, only about 30% is for everything else. Not that I'm complaining in any way, I think I'm blessed to have a husband who wants to actively participate in his child's development and is as passionate about it all as I am.
It all started one Saturday evening, while I was baking in the kitchen and she decided to venture out from the kitchen into my sister's room. One look into the room, I knew what exactly attracted her to it, my sister's bag with half the guts spilled out. Within seconds she was seated next to the beg which was placed on the mattress that was on the floor. When she put one hand out to grab the bag, both my sister and I went, "Hey!". She retrieved her hand, slowly pushed the room door to block us out of her view and grabbed the bag once more. The best part is, babies always think just because they cannot see us, they think we can't see either. Which is SO cute. Reminds me of a gf and her son, who plays hide and seek by covering his eyes thinking no one can see him when he does that!
Anyways, what happened was the next day mum came to visit so all of us girls were hanging out in my sister's room with Nia in the middle. There was mum, my aunt who is Nia's nanny, my two sisters & I. I recounted the story from the day before how Nia tried to not show us what she was doing by pushing the door etc. From the time I started telling the story she was already getting upset at me, she kept staring at me and shouting, "Eii!", "Eii!", she actually does this quite alot especially when we are talking about her, so I just went on with my story. But this time, when I finished telling the story, everyone laughed, and this was when she jumped on me from where she was seated, buried her face in my neck and started crying. I had to carry her in my arms and comfort her before the crying subsided.
Later that night when I re-told what happened to hubz, we both realised that she was actually embarassed! Now I know. I reckon when they are able to feel different emotions, they should be able to feel embarassed or shy too, no? Whatever the professionals may say on the topic. I mean, we can deduce babies actions and reactins to a certain degree, unless I sit down with Nia every minute of her waking life, recording every single thing that she does, I will never be able to tell for sure whether whatever that is written about babies in different stages are accurate as far as my baby's concerned, isn't that so? Aren't all babies, just like adults, individuals?
Nia did start crawling when she was barely 5 months, well, no, I wouldn't call that crawling, it was more like a caterpillar's movement, where she uses her head to push her way through, and sometimes, she leaps using her whole body! When she got tired of this, she tried walking, she will slide down from the couch and start crusing by holding on to the couch! At this point she can't even sit up yet, so I had concerns for her wanting to walk so fast when obviously her back and legs aren't strong enough. But we encouraged it nevertheless, just that, we took extra measures like ensuring she's fed sitting up straight in her baby chair and whenever she wants to be sitting up, we'll prop her against piles of pillows so that she get the 'experience' of it. Then, by the time she turned 6 mths, her two lower front teeth erupted, as you can imagine, this was a major event in our lives, not only Nia's! She only became extremely active in crawling after her teeth erupted, I do not know if there is any connection between this two events, but it seems so to me. Now that she can be classified as F1 crawler, she still cruises whenever possible and most time she will stand up holding on to something, like TV, book shelf & table and has her little "no-hands" moments!
Back to my point, what I'm saying is that just because there's no recorded evidence by the pros does not mean what a baby experiences is unreal. I guess, as parents, we may read too much into something, as of course, we all WANT to believe or LIKE to believe that our offsprings are the smartest/cleverest/cutest of the lot. Unfortunately, that is NOT my intention, I do not wish to start comparing Nia with other kids, I don't want her to grow up thinking that she's better than certain people or she's worse than some. It may be important that she has some competitive streak in her but this she can learn that when she's older by playing sports. Nia is Nia. She has spunk and lots of personality (as what her daddy claims!), she does not give up and she does everything in her own time. As a parent, I know my responsibility is to nurture that sense of independence & curiosity and allow her to be a baby AND an explorer.
I, too, am learn something new everyday and everyday hubz and I talk about what she did, what we did etc just to keep a tab on the small mistakes we make sometimes without even noticing and go through all the stuff that we should never do as parents. I do realise that nowadays 70% of the conversation hubz & I have are either on Nia or on parenting, only about 30% is for everything else. Not that I'm complaining in any way, I think I'm blessed to have a husband who wants to actively participate in his child's development and is as passionate about it all as I am.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Bon Ton Resort Langkawi
Just a quick one.. this is the place I MUST go to! I just love 4 poster beds and especially the outdoor bath! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr... 
The other hotel/resort that I enjoyed immensely was Avillion PD! Yes, yes, I know, PD, as a beach, sucks MAJOR but Avillion is somethin else! The chalets are on stilts, (yes, like in Pangkor Laut and lots of other island resorts in the Pacific Oceans) the bathroom is open air, part of the bathroom floor is covered in clear glass so that you could see the sea water underneath! Very THE cool, like capital C cool, you know what I mean? Let me see if I have some pix. The gist of it is I think I just have this thing for outdoor bath, so any place with outdoor bath will be on top of my list! Next year it's Japamala, definitely!
here goes, the bathroom in avillion.. the blue mosaic wall, well there's no roof over that!
and, what do you know! another 4-poster bed! haha
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Resolutions and similar bollocks ;o)
Yes! It's a brand new year. Apparently it'll will be quite a tough year for most of us, according to economists, of course. If you are zodiac-maniac, it may also be quite tough especially if you are a Tiger, like me! I checked out many a websites on chinese zodiac and almost all of them claim that 2009 the year of the Bull/Ox/Cow *whatever* is not going to be a good year for me! *GASP* What will I do, Oh! Just WHAT WILL I do? Well, here's a summary of what I'm going to do, whether or not it's a good year for me, I think I'll decide on that! I've broken it down to long term and short one (and by long term I mean within the next 11 months), so here are the long term ones:
- Get my fat ass to gym and start on another hardcore BFL challenge, latest by Feb 09.
- Lose 20KG by August 09.
- Wean Nia off me latest by April, preferably by the time she turns 1.
- Sell off the two properties I own pronto, and get the one my hubz is in love with. Target Dec 09.
- Get a bloody driver's licence - also by Dec 09! hehe- yea the longer it takes the better- can you blame me if I PREFER to be driven than to drive myself?!!
- Back to school by mid 2009, this has been put off for WAY too long.
- Bake more often - I used to be such a good "domesticated" wife, I bake every week for my sweet toothed hubz but not anymore, and I know I shouldn't use Nia as an excuse for not doing that.
Short term:
- Learn up how to make marzipan/fondant cake deco NOW
- Get a new hair colour.. this mahogany brown I have now is SO last year! (pun intended)
- Still toying with the idea to see a derm, perhaps go to my old one or look for a new one.. havent decided, let's see how it goes.
- Bake a cake for every family member/close friend's birthday! That means I will have to bake 6 cakes in Jan alone! Yea, we'll see if it's another hangat2 taik ayam plan.
Oh well, these are all I have at the top of my head now, will be adding more as I move along the year. Notice I didn't put anything relating to work? Well, that's on purpose. I want to move away from focusing too much on my career as I have done all my working life and not on what really matters, like personal time with hubz, my nia, my gfs, my folks and most importantly, personal time for myself to do what pleases me without having to think of pleasing others.
I want to start with travel plans for myself. This year we are pretty much set as one of my so-called BFF is getting married in August in Canada, so that's a WAJIB travel plan. But I want a beach vacation with hubz and at the same time I'm not "beach-ready" yet. I don't want to go to the beach looking like this! Dahlah I don't swim, so most times I just lay on the beach with a book and a drink. If I were to do that looking like this people might mistake me for a dugong and throw me back to the sea or worst, barbeque me! Since I'm giving myself until August to shed 20KG, if I'm able to achieve that, I will reward myself with a trip to Bon Ton Resort, Langkawi in Nov/Dec period. Haha this is what I call a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone trip. Rest, relax & shop! The last time hubz was in Langkawi he kept annoying me by calling me everytime he was in a shopping mall and telling me how cheap the pots & pans were, so it is HIS wish that we should get to Langkawi to shop for pots & pans! So, hubz gets his pots & pans shopping wish, I get my Bon Ton wish, okay aper?! Ok now, back to work.
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